Hotels take plunge with luxury pools

Houston area joins trend as some top inns hope a resortlike scene can increase room stays and build business in general

DAVID KAPLAN, Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle

Published 5:30 am, Sunday, August 3, 2008

Photo: MELISSA PHILLIP, CHRONICLE

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Kalie Hatfield polishes sunglasses and sprays mist on sun bathers as a "tanning butler" at the San Luis Hotel's H2O Pool + Bar in Galveston. Houston-area hotels are diving into the national trend of high-end hotel pools combined with upscale bars. less

Kalie Hatfield polishes sunglasses and sprays mist on sun bathers as a "tanning butler" at the San Luis Hotel's H2O Pool + Bar in Galveston. Houston-area hotels are diving into the national trend of high-end ... more

Photo: MELISSA PHILLIP, CHRONICLE

Hotels take plunge with luxury pools

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At H2O Pool + Bar at the San Luis Hotel in Galveston, a white-gloved waitress offers guests frozen grapes, while a "tanning butler" sprays mist on sun bathers and polishes their sunglasses.

Downtown Houston, meanwhile, has its own luxurious new poolside scene at the Four Seasons Houston. Guests sitting on an outdoor bed are served frozen fruit skewers, scented chilled towels and berry smoothies.

Blending a high-end hotel pool with an upscale bar to create a resortlike scene is a national trend, and Houston is diving in.

Though the pools can be costly — the Four Seasons spent $4 million on its upgrade and the San Luis, $2 million — hotel operators say they help boost room stays and business in general.

A key ingredient is opening them to the public. By mixing stylish outsiders with hotel guests, the hotel gives its pool a trendy, clublike feel.

Hotel ZaZa Houston has had a see-and-be-seen poolside operation in place since it opened last year. Omni Houston Hotel is planning to make its dramatically landscaped pool more of a social spot.

The San Luis and Four Seasons already had swimming pools, but nothing on this scale of glamour.

H2O opened in January, while the upgraded Pool at Four Seasons Hotel Houston debuted in April.

Different motivations

The San Luis and Four Seasons had different reasons for investing in their swanky pool/bar concepts, according to
John Keeling
, senior vice president of PKF, a hotel and restaurant consulting firm.

"The San Luis is all about leisure," he said, and the renovated pool/bar enhances the hotel's appeal for the same leisure traveler.

The Four Seasons, meanwhile, has traditionally been focused on the corporate traveler. The new experience will expand the Four Seasons' market, making it more popular with the leisure segment, Keeling said.

The Pool makes the Four Seasons more of a weekend destination, tying it in with other downtown activities, including sporting events, restaurants, Discovery Green park, and the future Houston Pavilions, he said.

The Four Seasons "has the insight to know where downtown is going, and it's a pretty smart move," Keeling said.

Vegas, South Beach

Landry's Restaurants Chairman and CEO
Tilman Fertitta
got the idea for H2O after seeing high-end pool/bar scenes in Las Vegas and South Beach.

"I just thought the San Luis was the ideal property" for a concept featuring a sleek bar and pool overlooking the Gulf of Mexico "where you can catch a cool breeze at night and in the winter stay warm by the fire pit," Fertitta said.

"People are driving in from Houston just to hang out at the bar," he said.

More Houstonians are choosing to take trips to Galveston over New Orleans and San Antonio, said Paul Schultz, vice president of hospitality for the hotel division of Landry's.

"The price of gas has helped us," Schultz said. "This was a record year. Part of it is H2O, part is high gas prices."

Since H2O opened, room occupancy is up, he said, noting that during the summer, it has run well over 90 percent.

Rooms at the San Luis run from the upper $200s to the $500s.

Private cabanas

H2O is divided into two areas, one for guests and the other for the public. The guest side of the pool has private cabanas offering bottle service, which includes wine and liquor spirits and setups.

H2O is complemented by Club 10, a plush new level of rooms designed for the upscale young adult. Its amenities include a TV screen embedded in the bathroom mirror. Club 10 and H2O opened simultaneously.

"I go to Vegas and South Beach quite a lot, and H2O makes me feel like I'm on a resort vacation," said Galveston resident Allen Flores.

'A pretty crowd'

"It's really done in a hip and cool way," he said, with its sushi bar, plasma TVs and "upscale and pampering service. It's great for people watching and usually has a pretty crowd," said Flores, who owns a nightclub in the Strand area.

The Four Seasons also benefits from its new poolside scene.

"Our weekend business has gone up considerably since we opened the pool," said Mark Herron, general manager of Four Seasons Houston.

The Four Seasons' pool area has palms, a water wall, Brazilian wood and a hand-cut Turkish Travertine tile floor and oval-shaped salt-water pool.

Herron expects his business to increase even more after the Pavilions open. One Pavilions tenant, the House of Blues, will be adjacent to the hotel.

The Four Seasons' normal weekend rates start at $195, while the hotel's "Cool by the Pool" weekend rates, which include additional poolside amenities, begin at $215.

"Even though you're in the middle of everything downtown, it really feels like you're in another place," Bowen said. He will order a fresh mango margarita, sit under a big palm tree and "catch the breeze."

A fixture at Hotel ZaZa

The Hotel ZaZa Houston in the
Museum District
has had a pool/bar scene since its inception.

The pool is "a vital part of what we do," said Benji Homsey, ZaZa's president. On Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, the pool is packed with a mix of hotel guests and locals, he said.

"It's another food-and-beverage outlet for us and is a great amenity for the guests," Homsey said.

The pool at Omni Houston Hotel in the Uptown Park/Galleria area will soon be made over to evoke more of the pool/bar feel.

The hotel's pool area already features black swans gliding in a pond and red wall fountains.

The Omni Houston's $30 million project includes the Mokara Spa overlooking the pool.

By day, the pool will become an extension of the spa offering treatments at poolside cabanas, while at night the pool will be an extension of the Black Swan dance bar and feature poolside dancing and DJs, said Joe Wronski, the hotel's director of marketing.

To oversee the spa and activities at the pool, the Omni has hired Alice Bergendorff, whose title is "director of relaxation," he said.